1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dental prosthetics, and particularly to a joint assembly for dental implant abutment that provides versatile alignment for mounting or supporting a dental prosthesis with minimal adjustments and enhanced retention of dental appliances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different prosthetic options can be used for patients who are missing some or all of their teeth. Depending on the number and condition of the remaining teeth, the treatment options can range from fixed appliances or prostheses attached to the remaining teeth or attached to endosseous dental implants, removable partial appliances that gain retention from the remaining teeth, or removable complete appliances that rest on the oral mucosa.
A wide variety of endosseous dental implants are available in the market today, all of which share common features. These typically include a body with external threads, which is pretreated for insertion inside the jawbones and to facilitate osseointegration. The body of the implant also contains internal threads, which allows for a second part, usually called a prosthetic component, to be secured in the body of the implant.
In case of removable complete appliances, the patient lacks teeth that can enhance retention of the appliance. Due to this condition, two endosseous dental implants are typically implanted in the mandible to enhance the retention of the appliance. Different attachment systems or anchors are available to mount the appliance. These anchors can be attached to the roots of non-vital teeth, or to endosseous dental implants, usually two in number, that are placed in the canine teeth area.
The Locator® (“Locator” is a registered trademark of Zest Anchors, Inc. of Escondido, Calif.) is a common attachment assembly or anchor used by many dentists. This anchor is based on U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,219, issued to Zuest et al. Feb. 29, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This anchor includes a female part attached to a non-vital tooth or to an endosseous dental implant, and a male part that can be attached to a dental appliance, e.g., removable complete or partial dentures. While this anchor is effective in providing a fixture for mounting the appliance, the anchor requires that the anchor implants be aligned or arranged substantially parallel to the corresponding mounting sockets in the appliance. The implant alignment or parallelism should be established early during the stage of surgically placing the implants in the jawbones. However, this is not always feasible because it depends on the availability of bone in the selected implant insertion area. The dental surgeon might be forced to tilt an implant in a direction where most of the bone is available. This type of situation can increase instances of misalignment that can decrease the effectiveness of mounting the appliance.
Thus, a joint assembly for dental implant abutment solving the aforementioned problems is desired.